Underwood

It was great to have the new season of House of Cards drop on Netflix yesterday. I got through three episodes with Cécile last night and will hopefully get another three or four in tonight – it is a great show for binge watching.

Though I might sound like something approaching a hipster, I was into House of Cards before it was cool. Years before, in fact. I had read all of Michael Dobbs’ tightly written series of books and even owned the BBC House of Cards series on VHS – yes, I am that old – when I lived in Australia.

The American series is different, of course, and there is a lot more time to build up the tension over the course of a 13 episode season than in the shorter British version. I like the character Frank Underwood though I am not sure he quite approaches the evil that Ian Richardson brought to the original ‘F.U.’. There’s something about that accent, those cold eyes, and the absolutely amoral approach to life and politics that was so damning and so intriguing at the same time in that original character. Kevin Spacey has his own touch of malice, of course, but it’s not the same.

Still, it is engrossing and one of the series that I was really looking forward to this year. In the next couple of weeks the new seasons of Silicon Valley and Orange is the New Black also arrive, and both will be ingested fast and with fury here at home.

The only downside to this season of House of Cards? I somehow get the feeling that it will be the last. While I won’t go into spoilers except to say that – after three episodes – there is little to suggest this couldn’t go another two or three seasons, something tells me that four seasons of thirteen episodes mirrors the four suits of thirteen cards in a deck of cards.